Russia May Fingerprint HIV-Positive Citizens

After cracking down on its LGBT citizenry last where, when President Vladimir Putin signed the controversial "homosexual propaganda" law, it looks like some Russian lawmakers are taking aim at HIV-positive individuals.

State Duma Deputy Roman Khudyakov of the Liberal Democratic party told local media he amended a bill on fingerprinting that would include the creation of a database of those infected with dangerous diseases. The agency will collect medical records and make patients undergo fingerprinting. That information will be added into a database.

Khudyakov said he got the idea because he believes some people infected with deadly diseases change their names and vanish from Russia’s systems. The lawmaker claims the fingerprint database would make it impossible, and easier to fight crime, to disappear from the grid.

The measure, which was drafted last August, requires every Russian resident to register with a fingerprint scan. Those that refuse to be part of the database would face a $1,400 fine and those non-Russian citizens that refuse, could be banned from the country for 15 years.

Although the bill has received support from some lawmakers, other members of parliament have criticized it, including the head of the State Duma Healthcare Committee, Sergey Kalashnikov.

"It is one thing when you fingerprint the arriving migrants and completely different when you fingerprint our own law abiding citizens," he said.